Friday, March 5, 1982

40°

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Vol. 44, No. 10

‘ A further escalation of U.S. in-
} "Olvement in El Salvador was
Seen last week as Radio Vencere-
| Nos charged that U.S. military
-~YlSOrs were flying helicopters
'Nto combat zones. Radio Ven-
Ceremos is the clandestine broad-
arm of the Farabundo Marti
beration Front (FMLN).

U According to the reports, the
‘S. advisors have been used by

© Duarte regime because of the
ffectiveness of FMLN guerrillas

Shooting down helicopters pi-
Sted by regular Salvadorean
troops

anil rr

The advisors have apparently
been ferrying the junta’s troops
into the combat zones in the
U.S.-made Huey helicopters.

Significantly, the charges come
Sivas after Duarte called for
stepped-up U.S. emergency aidto
his troops — and after U.S. presi-
dent Reagan had denied any com-
bat role for U.S. advisors in El

Salvador.

Radio Venceremos’ revela-
tions bear out a warning voiced
by Shafik Jorge Handal, the lead-
er of the Communist Party of El
Salvador, who said that the U.S.

Oblivious to the protest sign
behind her and fellow Socred
Warnett Kennedy, human re-
sources minister Grace Mc-
Carthy grins dutifully at offi-
cial sod-turning Monday for
new Advanced Light Rapid
Transit Line. Demonstrators
from the Downtown Eastside
Residents Association and
other groups showed up at
the Socreds’ media event to

“protest the B.C. Place mega-

project, lining up beside the
backhoe (bottom right) as
premier Bennett turned over
the sod.

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

has been secretly increasing its in-
volvement in El Salvador to bol-
ster the junta’s forces which are
demoralized and in danger of col-
lapse.

‘©A situation has arisen which
has much in common with the
Vietnam situation in the early
1970s when the Saigon puppet
troops were unable to offer ser-
ious resistance to:the Vietnamese
patriots,’’ he said in an interview
with Novosti Press Agency.

“In Vietnam, the U.S. then as-
sumed the entire burden of the

Peace rally

Sidney Lens, a noted Ameri-
can disarmament figure and au-
thor of the book, ‘‘The Day Be-
fore Doomsday,”’ will be a fea-
tured speaker at the peace rally
this Saturday, Mar. 6 called by
the Coalition for World Dis-
armament. The rally at Robson
Square will be preceded by a
march through downtown Van-
couver starting at 1:15 p.m.
from Christ Church cathedral,
capping off a weekend confer-
ence on Canada’s role at the up-
coming special disarmament
session of the United Nations.

Call for fight

over controls
grows as Fed
waits on gov't

_ By SEAN GRIFFIN
~The B.C. Federation of Labor
announced Feb. 26 that it would
“‘bide its time’’ in its response to
premier Bennett’s wage control
progam and would not be
‘stamped into any action that will
give the premier his manufactured
election issue.”’

But with every step the govern-

ANALYSIS

ment takes to erect the structure for
its wage control program the con-
frontation with the labor move-
ment grows closer if the policy
outlined in successive Federation
conventions to fight wage controls
is upheld.

Even in announcing that the
Federation would bide its time,
president Jim Kinnaird emphasiz-
ed that the B.C. Fed has a ‘‘very
strong mandate’’ in opposing wage
controls. He added that no action
had been ruled out.

But the demand has been grow-

war. This also awaits the U.S. in
El Salvador.’

Because of public reaction to
further involvement, the U.S. is
moving secretly he said, adding
that Reagan has stepped up ship-
ments of planes and helicopters.
But it has also sent pilots and
technical advisors ‘‘because the
junta has neither the pilots nor the
ground service personnel to han-
dle the new U.S. equipment,’’ he
said.

Handal, who is also in the lead-
ership of the FMLN, emphasized
that even with the intensified U.S.

ing for action to be taken now.

Kinnaird told the Tribune Monday
that several union locals and labour
councils had urged the organiza-
tion of a demonstration timed for
the opening of the legislature to
protest wage controls. And as one
delegate to the Vancouver and Dis-
trict Labor Council put it Tuesday,
unless there is action, ‘‘the workers
are going to get demoralized.”’

In outlining its approach follow-
ing a meeting of its public sector
committee and the executive coun-
cil, the Federation termed the wage
control program ‘‘nothing more
that a blatant political act’’.

‘‘We are of the belief that the
premier is attempting to manufac-
ture an election issue,’’ Kinnaird
said in an official statement Feb.
26. ‘‘It is clear to us that he wants
an election and he wants to use
labour as the excuse and issue for
such an election, a manufactured
issue to cover up his own in-
competence.”’

The statement denounced the

See LABOR page 12

Pilots’ action signals step-up in U.S. role

aid, the liberation army has been
able to step up its offensive, be-
gun in December.

On Feb. 26 Prensa Latina re-
ported the opening of new offens-
ives in several areas of the country
and rebel commander Raul Her-
cules has called over Radio Ven-
ceremos for the people of the
capital San Salvador to be ready
“‘for the decisive battles that are
approaching.”’

* The danger is that the junta’s
fraudulent elections will be used
as a pretext for a heightened U.S.
role in the country.

sagen im